Challenging Normativity: Mapping the Intersectional Performativity of Blackness and Disability in Higher Education

• In Event: Intersectional Pathways: BIPOC Resistance and Repair in Academic Spaces

Abstract

This paper introduces the framework Intersectional Performativity of Blackness and Disability, developed from my dissertation research which examines the social experiences and academic success of Black Disabled students navigating university. I explore how Black disabled students in higher education perform normative, ablebodied identities to survive in racialized, ableist institutions. Using critical autoethnography and a conceptual chart, this work maps the embodied labor required across various social and educational spaces. Grounded in Black feminist disability studies, DisCrit, and performance theory, this work aligns with the AERA 2026 themes of equity-oriented scholarship examining intersectionality of race, class, gender identity, and abilities and ability justice. It offers a theoretical and pedagogical contribution to Disability Studies in Education and higher education equity discourse.

Author

• Prilly Bicknell-Hersco, York University